The ancient Vesperal Hymn of the Church, "O Gladsome Light", is "Fos Ilaron" in Greek, and "ilaron" is where we get the English word "hilarious" from. Also "St. Euphrosyne" and "St. Euphrosynos", derive their names from "evfroseni" meanining "cheerfulness".

But neither of these point toward any kind of trite amusements. Gladness, cheerfulness and hilarity are all wonderful emotions from God, but often with "fun" people are referring to distractions or activities which arouse the passions.

The ancient Vesperal Hymn of the Church, "O Gladsome Light", is "Fos Ilaron" in Greek, and "ilaron" is where we get the English word "hilarious" from. Also "St. Euphrosyne" and "St. Euphrosynos", derive their names from "evfroseni" meanining "cheerfulness".

But neither of these point toward any kind of trite amusements. Gladness, cheerfulness and hilarity are all wonderful emotions from God, but often with "fun" people are referring to distractions or activities which arouse the passions.

Well, "trite amusements" is rather a value judgement, maybe. A small child, happy with his/her costume and being an elephant or a princess or a rocketship or a hobbit or elf or ear-of-corn or any of a myriad of dress-up outfits would be to me, glad and cheerful.

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"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

The ancient Vesperal Hymn of the Church, "O Gladsome Light", is "Fos Ilaron" in Greek, and "ilaron" is where we get the English word "hilarious" from. Also "St. Euphrosyne" and "St. Euphrosynos", derive their names from "evfroseni" meanining "cheerfulness".

But neither of these point toward any kind of trite amusements. Gladness, cheerfulness and hilarity are all wonderful emotions from God, but often with "fun" people are referring to distractions or activities which arouse the passions.

Kind of like anonymous internet messageboards where it's incredibly easy to hop on one's high horse and act like you're so far above the rabble who indulge in petty internet arguments because one knows that one is here for purely dispassionate reasons.

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"Hearing a nun's confession is like being stoned to death with popcorn." --Abp. Fulton Sheen

The ancient Vesperal Hymn of the Church, "O Gladsome Light", is "Fos Ilaron" in Greek, and "ilaron" is where we get the English word "hilarious" from. Also "St. Euphrosyne" and "St. Euphrosynos", derive their names from "evfroseni" meanining "cheerfulness".

But neither of these point toward any kind of trite amusements. Gladness, cheerfulness and hilarity are all wonderful emotions from God, but often with "fun" people are referring to distractions or activities which arouse the passions.

You mean like drinking alcohol?Because thats what Psalm 103:15 in the LXX says when it ususes the word "euphraine" from which we get "euphrosynos":"And wine which gladdens (euphraine) the heart of man".So this pious, God-given, gladness of heart of which you speak comes to us through wine.

Kind of like anonymous internet messageboards where it's incredibly easy to hop on one's high horse and act like you're so far above the rabble who indulge in petty internet arguments because one knows that one is here for purely dispassionate reasons.

LOL!

« Last Edit: November 28, 2009, 09:37:18 PM by ozgeorge »

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If you're living a happy life as a Christian, you're doing something wrong.

Kind of like anonymous internet messageboards where it's incredibly easy to hop on one's high horse and act like you're so far above the rabble who indulge in petty internet arguments because one knows that one is here for purely dispassionate reasons.

Well it's not very fun climbing on a high horse when people just knock you down!

Just so everybody knows, I was talking about "puritanical" in regards to Americas religious past, not Christianity in general.

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Men may dislike truth, men may find truth offensive and inconvenient, men may persecute the truth, subvert it, try by law to suppress it. But to maintain that men have the final power over truth is blasphemy, and the last delusion. Truth lives forever, men do not.-- Gustave Flaubert

Just so everybody knows, I was talking about "puritanical" in regards to Americas religious past, not Christianity in general.

It appears to me that though the West might be the source of "puritanical" rules and external correctness within Christianity this attitude is not absent from some Orthodox circles. The more I understand Orthodoxy (and I'm no expert), the more I think of this as being something superimposed and foreign to Orthodoxy. On the other hand, I could be completely wrong.

« Last Edit: November 29, 2009, 04:04:49 AM by Riddikulus »

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I believe in One God, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

All religions have groups of people within them who are very legalistic and "Puritanical". Just loo at the Hasidim Jews or Wahhabi Muslims. I'm sure even a group as far out as the Unitarians have some type of "inner circle" of strict adherent's to whatever it is they exactly believe these days.

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Men may dislike truth, men may find truth offensive and inconvenient, men may persecute the truth, subvert it, try by law to suppress it. But to maintain that men have the final power over truth is blasphemy, and the last delusion. Truth lives forever, men do not.-- Gustave Flaubert

All religions have groups of people within them who are very legalistic and "Puritanical". Just loo at the Hasidim Jews or Wahhabi Muslims. I'm sure even a group as far out as the Unitarians have some type of "inner circle" of strict adherent's to whatever it is they exactly believe these days.

I personally hate the holiday. kids dress up as monsters and parade around, asking for candy? I think it's a bit dangerous, for starters, for children to go door-to-door for treats. who knows if their tampered with? what if the child is stolen from the porch by the homeowner? also, I know it's a Pagan holiday, so I don't see why any Christian, Jew or Muslim should celebrate it. I think it's OK to add some superstition and cultural trends to Church feast days, such as Christmas (Santa, elves, presents, etc.)

and this is just a personal one. But every Holloween, my sister goes with her friends, my mother goes to bed early, and I'm left to hand out candy! last year, I just wanted to read a good book, and I kept getting interrupted by "trick or treat".

for religous reasons, I don't think it's apropreate for Orthodox Christians to celebrate Halloween. it's interesting the way our culture is... we get 2 weeks off for Christmas, but, at school, nobody has ever even heard of Holy Theophany! and my priest says that we should try to take time off of school and work to come to Church on this day.

Just so everybody knows, I was talking about "puritanical" in regards to Americas religious past, not Christianity in general.

Popularity of Halloween might have to do with puritannicalism of widespread Calvinism (ie. the funamentalists see the world in absolutes- 100% assurance of being saved, etc), and also lack of the mystical in mainstream/Calvinist/agnostic America. It's a combined reaction against those two.

The reaction might be natural, but could be sign of illness.

Pagan holiday like jumping over fires that still happens in Russia. At least we don't dress up as monsters around Christmas and Easter like some European countries. (eg. French Christmas where demon whupped little kids unfortunate enough to have violent, antagonistic parents instead of Santa bringing presents, or Austria where they have a holiday where big bullies dress up as monsters, even today, and whoop young people.) Much much worse sign of illness IMO.

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The ocean, infinite to men, and the worlds beyond it, are directed by the same ordinances of the Lord. ~ I Clement 20

Icons and candles on your porch! If you have the opportunity and a front porch, set up some icons. Have candles burning. Christmas lights twinkling if you like. Invite the little Halloween boys and girls to light a candle themselves. Give them the sweets and also small paper icons. The ones from Russia these days are very attractive to children.

Open your church! For many years as a parish priest I opened the church on the night of Halloween after Vespers. I lit every lamp and every candle and made it a magic place of God's presence. I had every outside light burning to make it a welcoming place. And people would come in..... with their children dressed as ghosties and ghoulies. Who knows what impact that special night and a visit to a beautiful and mysterious Christian church will have in the years to come.

Icons and candles on your porch! If you have the opportunity and a front porch, set up some icons. Have candles burning. Christmas lights twinkling if you like. Invite the little Halloween boys and girls to light a candle themselves. Give them the sweets and also small paper icons. The ones from Russia these days are very attractive to children.

Open your church! For many years as a parish priest I opened the church on the night of Halloween after Vespers. I lit every lamp and every candle and made it a magic place of God's presence. I had every outside light burning to make it a welcoming place. And people would come in..... with their children dressed as ghosties and ghoulies. Who knows what impact that special night and a visit to a beautiful and mysterious Christian church will have in the years to come.

AMEN!

Selam

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"Whether it’s the guillotine, the hangman’s noose, or reciprocal endeavors of militaristic horror, radical evil will never be recompensed with radical punishment. The only answer, the only remedy, and the only truly effective response to radical evil is radical love."+ Gebre Menfes Kidus +http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000984270/Rebel-Song.aspx

"For, by its immensity, the divine substance surpasses every form that our intellect reaches. Thus we are unable to apprehend it by knowing what it is. Yet we are able to have some knowledge of it by knowing what it is not." - St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra gentiles, I, 14.

My wife, now reposed loved Halloween. She dressed up like a witch and played spooky music out the window and decorated the outside of the house. Halloween makes me a little sad remembering all that.

Something strange happend this year. She used make a neclace for her costume out of chicken bones. She would collect a few and put them in the diswasher with the silverware to get them clean enough to wear.

I found a chicken bone Saturday in the silverware tray of the dishwasher. I asked the family if anyone put it there. They looked at me like I was crazy. No one had. I went ahead and washed it.

The funny thing is that I was to attend a funeral Sunday ( Halloween) for a friend's Dad who just passed. Same cemetery as where my wife is. I dont go there often. I'm not one for visiting her grave.

Anyway. Just thought I'd share this for what it's worth.

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Your idea has been debunked 1000 times already.. Maybe 1001 will be the charm

"Whether it’s the guillotine, the hangman’s noose, or reciprocal endeavors of militaristic horror, radical evil will never be recompensed with radical punishment. The only answer, the only remedy, and the only truly effective response to radical evil is radical love."+ Gebre Menfes Kidus +http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000984270/Rebel-Song.aspx

My wife, now reposed loved Halloween. She dressed up like a witch and played spooky music out the window and decorated the outside of the house. Halloween makes me a little sad remembering all that.

Something strange happend this year. She used make a neclace for her costume out of chicken bones. She would collect a few and put them in the diswasher with the silverware to get them clean enough to wear.

I found a chicken bone Saturday in the silverware tray of the dishwasher. I asked the family if anyone put it there. They looked at me like I was crazy. No one had. I went ahead and washed it.

The funny thing is that I was to attend a funeral Sunday ( Halloween) for a friend's Dad who just passed. Same cemetery as where my wife is. I dont go there often. I'm not one for visiting her grave.

My wife, now reposed loved Halloween. She dressed up like a witch and played spooky music out the window and decorated the outside of the house. Halloween makes me a little sad remembering all that.

Something strange happend this year. She used make a neclace for her costume out of chicken bones. She would collect a few and put them in the diswasher with the silverware to get them clean enough to wear.

I found a chicken bone Saturday in the silverware tray of the dishwasher. I asked the family if anyone put it there. They looked at me like I was crazy. No one had. I went ahead and washed it.

The funny thing is that I was to attend a funeral Sunday ( Halloween) for a friend's Dad who just passed. Same cemetery as where my wife is. I dont go there often. I'm not one for visiting her grave.

Anyway. Just thought I'd share this for what it's worth.

memory eternal!

Amen. Memory Eternal!

A very interesting story. You should call up George Noory or Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM and share this story!

Selam

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"Whether it’s the guillotine, the hangman’s noose, or reciprocal endeavors of militaristic horror, radical evil will never be recompensed with radical punishment. The only answer, the only remedy, and the only truly effective response to radical evil is radical love."+ Gebre Menfes Kidus +http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000984270/Rebel-Song.aspx

My wife, now reposed loved Halloween. She dressed up like a witch and played spooky music out the window and decorated the outside of the house. Halloween makes me a little sad remembering all that.

Something strange happend this year. She used make a neclace for her costume out of chicken bones. She would collect a few and put them in the diswasher with the silverware to get them clean enough to wear.

I found a chicken bone Saturday in the silverware tray of the dishwasher. I asked the family if anyone put it there. They looked at me like I was crazy. No one had. I went ahead and washed it.

The funny thing is that I was to attend a funeral Sunday ( Halloween) for a friend's Dad who just passed. Same cemetery as where my wife is. I dont go there often. I'm not one for visiting her grave.

Anyway. Just thought I'd share this for what it's worth.

memory eternal!

Amen. Memory Eternal!

A very interesting story. You should call up George Noory or Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM and share this story!

Selam

ah, yes! just stay away from those Sylvia Brown types....shell probably say that your wife is moving things around your home to get some gruesome message to you!

My wife, now reposed loved Halloween. She dressed up like a witch and played spooky music out the window and decorated the outside of the house. Halloween makes me a little sad remembering all that.

Something strange happend this year. She used make a neclace for her costume out of chicken bones. She would collect a few and put them in the diswasher with the silverware to get them clean enough to wear.

I found a chicken bone Saturday in the silverware tray of the dishwasher. I asked the family if anyone put it there. They looked at me like I was crazy. No one had. I went ahead and washed it.

The funny thing is that I was to attend a funeral Sunday ( Halloween) for a friend's Dad who just passed. Same cemetery as where my wife is. I dont go there often. I'm not one for visiting her grave.

Anyway. Just thought I'd share this for what it's worth.

memory eternal!

Amen. Memory Eternal!

A very interesting story. You should call up George Noory or Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM and share this story!

Selam

ah, yes! just stay away from those Sylvia Brown types....shell probably say that your wife is moving things around your home to get some gruesome message to you!

Exactly. Call up Coast to Coast, share this remarkable story, but make sure to end it with Orthodox Truth!

Selam

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"Whether it’s the guillotine, the hangman’s noose, or reciprocal endeavors of militaristic horror, radical evil will never be recompensed with radical punishment. The only answer, the only remedy, and the only truly effective response to radical evil is radical love."+ Gebre Menfes Kidus +http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000984270/Rebel-Song.aspx

One of the litmus tests I gave my priest was asking him whether or not he let his children trick-or-treat when they were young.

He answered rightly.

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Quote from: Fr. Thomas Hopko, dystopian parable of the prodigal son

...you can imagine so-called healing services of the pigpen. The books that could be written, you know: Life in the Pigpen. How to Cope in the Pigpen. Being Happy in the Pigpen. Surviving in the Pigpen. And then there could be counselling, for people who feel unhappy in the pigpen, to try to get them to come to terms with the pigpen, and to accept the pigpen.

I have never celebrated Halloween. I went to a Halloween party once when I was 23 or so, but I didn't dress up. I'm kind of indifferent to the holiday. I prefer to celebrate All Saints Day the next day. We have a large Hispanic population where I live, so there are a lot of celebrations for the dead on that day or the weekend preceding the actual holiday which are fun and generally respectful.

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"If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice.” -The Divine John Chrysostom

“Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.” -Anthony Trollope

I signed up to volunteer at the Zoo for their Halloween party (kids trick or treat outside the animal exhibits) before I found out that Orthodoxy generally frowns on Halloween. Should I cancel?

There is Jack Chick brouhaha surrounding this event every year, even though the holiday has Christian connections. Nevermind, what some people within Orthodoxy frown upon. What do you think?

Why would I disregard what my future coreligionists think?

I'll tell you what I think. I think that the consensus amongst the Orthodox (besides the people who make fun of 'hyperdox' and 'LARPers' on this forum) that I've seen is that Halloween is not something that an Orthodox Christian should participate in. I'm trying to see if economy could be applied in my case since I obliged myself to be involved before I knew that I shouldn't be.

« Last Edit: October 26, 2011, 10:37:16 PM by William »

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Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

I have never celebrated Halloween. I went to a Halloween party once when I was 23 or so, but I didn't dress up. I'm kind of indifferent to the holiday. I prefer to celebrate All Saints Day the next day. We have a large Hispanic population where I live, so there are a lot of celebrations for the dead on that day or the weekend preceding the actual holiday which are fun and generally respectful.

Sorta embarrassing to see adults dressing up for Halloween. Halloween is hitting Europe hard. Just the sexy adult variety. Nothing for the kids.

But I can bob for apples like no one else.

I was drugged to a Halloween party / concert once. You had to dress up to get in. But they didn't seem to really care.

Ended up meeting a long term GF there. All because of bobbing for apples.

Boy do I wish I had stayed home, like I usually do.

But it would be cool to have the parish open as Father suggested above. I would definitely hang.

I prefer to celebrate All Saints Day the next day. We have a large Hispanic population where I live, so there are a lot of celebrations for the dead on that day or the weekend preceding the actual holiday which are fun and generally respectful.

We do the same thing!

I don't quite know when I have kids. I went trick-or-treating myself as a child, and didn't ascribe anything religious to it. I just wanted candy. For right now, I'm thinking about drawing the line at holding any parties for the kids at the house or such, but if they are having a party at school, they can dress up. I love dressing up and I know how exciting it was to wear a costume during classes all day.

Ahh, such a hard line to draw. I don't feel militant enough about Halloween, I guess. I'm ambivalent. But I am not a big fan of the day either.

I want to ask my priest now, just to see what he thinks. I have a sneaking suspicion that his kids went out trick-or-treating, but that's just a guess.

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She's touring the facility/and picking up slack.--"For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." Ecclesiastes 1:18--I once believed in causes too, I had my pointless point of view --Life went on no matter who was wrong or right

I have never celebrated Halloween. I went to a Halloween party once when I was 23 or so, but I didn't dress up. I'm kind of indifferent to the holiday. I prefer to celebrate All Saints Day the next day. We have a large Hispanic population where I live, so there are a lot of celebrations for the dead on that day or the weekend preceding the actual holiday which are fun and generally respectful.

Sorta embarrassing to see adults dressing up for Halloween.

Sorta (very) embarrassing to see adults bobbing for apples. ;-)

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"If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice.” -The Divine John Chrysostom

“Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.” -Anthony Trollope

I signed up to volunteer at the Zoo for their Halloween party (kids trick or treat outside the animal exhibits) before I found out that Orthodoxy generally frowns on Halloween. Should I cancel?

There is Jack Chick brouhaha surrounding this event every year, even though the holiday has Christian connections. Nevermind, what some people within Orthodoxy frown upon. What do you think?

Why would I disregard what my future coreligionists think?

I'll tell you what I think. I think that the consensus amongst the Orthodox (besides the people who make fun of 'hyperdox' and 'LARPers' on this forum) that I've seen is that Halloween is not something that an Orthodox Christian should participate in. I'm trying to see if economy could be applied in my case since I obliged myself to be involved before I knew that I shouldn't be.

At least knowing is half the battle.

I bet nearly every kid at my parish will somehow be involved in Halloween to one degree or another.